Ultra-precise holographic beam shaping for microscopic quantum control

High-resolution addressing of individual ultracold atoms, trapped ions or solid state emitters allows for exquisite control in quantum optics experiments. This becomes possible through large aperture magnifying optics that project microscopic light patterns with diffraction limited performance. We use programmable amplitude holograms generated on a digital micromirror device to create arbitrary microscopic beam shapes with full phase and amplitude control. The system self-corrects for aberrations of up to several lambda and reduces them to lambda/50, leading to light patterns with a precision on the 10(-4) level. We demonstrate aberration-compensated beam shaping in an optical lattice experiment and perform single-site addressing in a quantum gas microscope for Rb-87. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America